The Bahamas

What a perfect vacation for relaxation! Jenn and I had a great time. The fresh air and sun was much needed after such a cold and snowy winter.

Views from our room:

View of the hotel from the pool:
Our room is behind the right umbrella in the 2nd picture.

Here's a few things (good and bad) that we learned in the Bahamas:

-Wear a seatbelt! The shuttle taking us to our hotel crashed into a car. Here are 2 pictures taken while we waited for the police in the middle of a very large bridge. (There were no injuries). The first pic shows out hotel in the distance (the red sign that says "Riu")

-Wear a seatbelt! The day we ventured into town in a taxi, the car made a wide right turn and we almost lost the taxi driver.... HIS DOOR OPENED AND HE ALMOST FELL OUT! His response "oops! I guess I didn't close it all the way"

- A strong wind will generate some pretty big waves and goosebumps from being chilly, but does not prevent sunburn on the 1st day.

The ocean was off limits for 3 days because of the conditions.

-A strong wind also doesn't keep your bathing suit on the balcony over night. (A pair of my bathing suit bottoms are now a permanent resident in the Bahamas since they were never found... luckily, I brought more than 1 bikini!)

- Asking for a daquiri going "light on the liquor" results in strange looks. The bartenders said they had "heavy hands" so we asked for light hands, not realizing they really try to liquor you up... check out their version of the mini bar in our hotel room:

Needless to say, the beverages and food were delicious!

- The Atlatis Resort (the other hotels on the part of the island we were staying) are amazing. Since there was nothing to do at our hotel at night, we ventured over to the Atlantis resort to snap some pictures of what it would be like to be rich enough to stay at a place like this:

The many hotels on the resort:

The wildlife and another scary bridge we had to cross:

-The casino at Atlantis didn't like me, but Jenn won on the slots a few times!

-People are strange.

This picture was taken inside Atlantis, but took a few mintues to find someone to take our picture. I asked one lady and she just gave me this weird look and walked right by! We figured she didn't speak english, but we saw her later with her kids speaking quite fluently!

-Never fly spirit airlines!

- They don't make sure you are on the right plane unless you happen to ask. On the way to Ft. Lauderdale, a girl had to get off the plane because she was supposed to be flying into Ft. Meyers.

- They tell you that you won't change planes, but then land in Ft. Lauderdale to find out you have 10 minutes to find your connecting gate.

- They tell you a certain gate for your connecting flight on the way home, only to realize that that gate was closed, and again, leave you with very minimal time to actually find the correct gate.

- They give seat numbers that don't exist (Jenn was giving 25F, the last row window seat, that wasn't even there. I was 25E, and there were only 2 tiny seats in that row)

- They charge $40 roundtrip to check a bag. There were many upset passengers that learned this the morning of their flight. Luckily, we found out earlier, and decided to just carry-on.

- They also charge if you want a beverage or snack: $2 for pop; $4 for snack.

But just becuase we had horrible flights, it didn't ruin our trip. We had a very knowledgable shuttle bus driver on our way to the airport. He gave us a very detailed history of the island and even pointed out the hotel where Anna Nicole Smith gave birth to her daughter (where her son died), then later, showed us where Anna and her son were burried. They have security around her grave because people try to steal the dirt on her grave to sell on Ebay. Ew.

All in all, it was a great get-away. I finished 3 books and got some school work done, too! Even though it's FREEZING back home, I'm glad to be back.